Lessons Learned: Week Twelve

This week we focused on social media marketing. While the introduction to social media marketing was quick, this was interesting because it was good to relate the different marketing strategies to our personal business. In the past I have taken several different social media classes, so going into the discussion it was easy for me to understand how this would relate to my specific business.

Because my website is for my freelance graphic design, I would actually benefit quite a bit from social media marketing. Social media marketing is the fastest way to grow an online presence in today’s world. I think this is especially true of visual-based businesses. Social media is one way to make yourself stand out visually. Another thing that we talked about that I thought was interesting, was the strategy behind your marketing varies from platform to platform and business to business. This is one thing that there is not a specific outline or guideline of what would drive the most success to your business. Because of that, social media marketing is the one area that I feel like can be used for experiments.

Here are resources that I would like to reference in the future:

Social Media Marketing:

https://neilpatel.com/what-is-social-media-marketing/

Social Media for Small Businesses:

http://soshable.com/social-media-cheat-sheet/

 

 

Lessons Learned: Week Eleven

This week we talked about the importance of optimizing your landing pages. The reason you would want to continually optimize your landing page is so that your landing page reflects your keywords and your google ads. Another reason that you may want to optimize, or change, your landing page would be to make it more user friendly. If your website is more user friendly, then you will have provided a good experience for the customer or future client and they may be inclined to purchase from you.

One way that I have tried to make my website more user friendly is to switch to a platform that is easier to make updates to. I originally had hand coded my entire website, but this was harder to make updates to, and it was a bit more time consuming. When I switched over to wordpress, it was easier to make those changes to the website.

Here are some resources I would like to reference in the future:

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6238826?hl=en-GB

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7450207

Lessons Learned: Week Ten

Optimizing keywords was honestly something that I didn’t think was necessary. I originally thought that when you imported your list of keywords you were done changing them, or updating if they showed with your ad. Now that I know the benefits of optimizing your keywords, I understand the importance of continually changing your list.

If you never make any changes to your keyword list, then your chances of being successful in your ad words campaign will be very slim. Its like doing daily maintenance. If you aren’t regulating your keywords then you can easily waste a lot of money on accidental key words.

Here are some resources that I would like to reference in the future:

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/6-effective-adwords-optimization-techniques-beginners/112289/

http://emp.byui.edu/lundink/250/keywordoptimization.htm

Lessons Learned: Week Nine

This week we discussed what a conversion would mean for our specific website. I think it was interesting to hear how to track those conversions and see what they would mean for our websites and business models. For some people a conversion would be to click on a page, fill out a form, click an affiliate link, or order a product. I think for my business it I would count a conversion as filling out an inquire or a form to send me what they want created.

Here are some resources that I would like to reference in the future:

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722054?hl=en&ref_topic=3119146

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/3419241?hl=en

Lessons Learned: Week Eight

This week we talked a lot about our ad words campaigns. But more specifically our text ads and the ad groups they belong to. What I learned was that it is important for the ads and the keywords to match. When the ads and the key words do not match it weakens the overall quality of the ad, and the likeliness of the person who is seeing your ad to actually click on it and convert. One way to do this is to include your keywords in the headline of your ad, and then in the ad copy. That way when the search term matches the key word, your ad will show up and people will have a higher chance of converting.

Another thing that we talked about was how to understand the quality score google gives you on your keywords. This has to do with how the key word relates to your ad and then how the ad and keywords relate to your landing page. It is interesting how google makes these calculations, but it is also helpful. When one keyword has a low quality score, it doesn’t perform as well and can often times make your impressions skyrocket. Removing keywords with a low score can make your campaigns perform much better.

Here are some resources that I would like to reference in the future:

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7050591?hl=en&ref_topic=3122882

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2404196

Lessons Learned: Week Seven

This week the main thing we learned was how to create successful ad word campaigns. I think the main thing that I took away from this lesson was the importance of having key words and utilizing Google Ad Words in a way that will help you be successful in the end. The discussion about good and bad ad words was really eye opening. I think I have become accustomed to just searching for broad terms and weeding out the weak results. This discussion helped me realize that we need to be specific in our use of keywords. While this is different from what I am used to doing when searching for something specific online, I think getting into the habit of being more specific will help me learn this skill to a whole new level.

When I go to create my ad words campaign, making lists of keywords that will be more specific to my topic will be a game changer. I think that will eliminate the use of random keywords that have a general connection to my topic. In addition, I think this will help my campaigns show more accurate results. I want my ads to only show up for those people that are actually searching for the terms I put in, if that is the case, they will have a higher chance of clicking on my ad and converting.

Here are resources that I would like to reference in the future:

https://support.google.com/google-ads/topic/3119130?hl=en&ref_topic=3119122,3181080,3126923,

 

Lessons Learned: Week Six

It was interesting to learn about the necessary legal documents needed and the specific forms to fill out based on the type of business you run. I think it is important to do this kind of research before you really dive into a business idea and model. You need to understand what kind of legal documents you are going to be required to fill out before you commit to spending lots of money on a product. If you can’t obtain those legal documents for one reason or another it would be easier to change business ideas before you get too far into the game. I was pleasantly surprised to find that with freelance graphic design there is a grey area on whether or not you need to have a business licence. I have to keep doing more research on this, but I think from what I understand it is not needed to run the business.

Here are some resources that I would like to reference in the future:

http://idahobizhelp.idaho.gov/BusinessWizard.aspx

http://www.sba.gov/content/collecting-sales-tax-over-internet

Lessons Learned: Week Five

This week I learned a lot about different forms of credit card payments and how to implement the different types of buttons in our page. I also enjoyed learning more about the different design styles and what is considered good design and bad design in creating a website. I enjoy learning more about design, so this was really fun for me. Also, I enjoyed comparing two different websites and analyzing how they work. When comparing Target and Nike’s websites, I noticed that they both had really great color schemes and image quality. This is something I want to implement into my own website in the future.

As I started thinking about how design will be important in my website, I thought that the design and features on your website will be the first thing that your potential future customer will see. If this design is good, it can send an impression of you to them. When I first land on a website I often will judge the quality of their web page and the experience of navigating their website as a reflection of how they feel about the product or service they are selling. That being said, I want to try to make my website as user friendly as possible, and appealing in design. I want to reflect to my future clients that I care about their web experience, and therefore I care about the work I would be doing for them.

Here are resources I would like to reference in the future:

http://emp.byui.edu/LUNDINK/250/ccpayment.htm

http://emp.byui.edu/LUNDINK/250/Site%20Design%20Research%20Excercise.htm

Lessons Learned: Week Four

This week I learned about the pros and cons of site builders. One thing that I knew before this class was that I really already liked word press and how it works. However, I wanted to try and hand code all of my pages from scratch. So that in itself was a challenge.

Some things that factor into choosing a site builder are:

-How often they update their themes

-Price

-Ease of use and understanding how to make the features work

-Do they support your business type?

Here are some resources that I would like to reference in the future:

http://emp.byui.edu/LUNDINK/250/Sitebuilder.htm

https://byui.instructure.com/courses/32880/file_contents/course%20files/

Lessons Learned: Week Three

It was interesting to compare the differences between drop shipping and using adsense to drive your business. Honestly neither of these business models correlated with the way I have my  business idea set up. However, that being said, it was neat to read and learn about how to successfully run a business like one that primarily is fueled by adsense or by drop shipping.

The concept of drop shipping blows my mind. I couldn’t wrap my head around it when we first started talking about it in class. The process of running a remote business and never touching the product is kind of scary. I was shocked to learn that a lot of people can create successful businesses from this kind of model. I think in order to make this kind of business super successful would be researching the product, the shipping company, and creating a fool proof process from order to receiving the package.

Here are some resources that I would like to reference in the future:

https://www.google.com/adsense/start/benefits/#/

http://emp.byui.edu/lundink/250/caseaffiliatedropship.htm

https://www.shopify.com/blog/117607173-the-definitive-guide-to-dropshipping-with-aliexpress